Kash Patel is emerging as a top candidate for CIA director

Former Defense Department official Kash Patel is being considered for several national security positions — including CIA director, a key GOP source told The Post on Monday.

Patel, 44, previously served as a National Security Council official, senior adviser to the acting director of national intelligence and chief of staff to the secretary of defense.

While President-elect Donald Trump has not officially made a decision on Patel’s final move, there have been “conversations” between the transition team and the former Trump official — with the majority of discussions in Trump World focused on the CIA, according to the CIA. the source.

If not heading the CIA, Patel could head the FBI or become director of National Intelligence, which the source believes he would also accept.

Patel had been in talks to be installed as deputy director of the CIA at the end of Trump’s term, but the head of the agency, Gian Haspel, expressed opposition and threatened to resign, Axios reported at the time.

Trump’s transition team has tried to keep conversations about who will fill his top Cabinet spots under wraps until the president-elect himself makes the official announcements.

Patel has been rumored as a possible top pick for months. He was one of the leading Republicans to oppose the investigation into Trump and Russian interference in 2016, and has long opposed government overreach in how its federal agents monitor Republicans.

Patel has written about the need to dismantle the Justice Department and overhaul the intelligence agencies, including the FBI, by firing their “top ranks.

“(T)he FBI has been so thoroughly compromised that it will remain a menace to the people unless drastic measures are taken,” Patel wrote in his book, “Government Gangsters.”

Trump spoke out in favor of Patel’s book during his campaign, calling it a “blueprint” for his next term in the White House in a Truth Social post.